Fighters
by loveandallthat
Summary: Just a couple of moments of Avatar and Firelord after the war, rebuilding the nation. Tiny tiny Zukaang, could easily be taken as close friendship. For Zukaang week day 2: Impossible Odds.


Title: Fighters

Summary: Just a couple of moments of Avatar and Firelord after the war.

Pairings: Very, very, very light Zukaang.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or anything else I may mention.

Notes: I think next time I need REAL Zukaang. I didn't have enough time in this one.

"_Born in you along with all the strife is the power to restore balance to the world."_

Aang looked up from where he was contentedly playing with the ties on Zuko's robes. "How did we get here?" he asked, only too late realizing that it drew attention to their too-close seating arrangements, Aang's legs across Zuko's lap and Zuko idly resting his hands on top of that. He also recognized that he might be treading dangerously close to feeling-talking, and Aang had some minor Zuko related feelings that he thought were better left unseen.

It was probably worse to take the words back, drawing attention to the fact that there's something off, a reason to take back words. So Aang just looked not quite at Zuko's eyes.

Remarkably, Zuko did not have any trouble understanding to what the question referred. He considered his answer, fingers drumming on Aang's legs as though the question didn't draw his attention to the potential uncomfortable situations if they were to recognize what they were doing. "Destiny," Zuko started, "good triumphing over evil, ancestry. You."

"Me?" Aang laughed. "No. I was more like the instrument. It was like… all my past lives, and all my friends did the work through me. I had almost nothing to do with it."

"You had everything to do with it," Zuko insisted, his palm resting unmoving and naturally on Aang's knee. Something about saving the world together had made everyone a little more comfortable being touchy-feely with each other, sure, but Zuko and Aang had always been a little starved for it, and could be looked at as overcompensating.

"There's no reasoning with you," Aang sighed, and Zuko laughed.

"_Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan! You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."_

Things started to hint in another direction after another one of Aang and Zuko's conferences with some of the leaders of the other nations. They'd had the foresight to find leaders who were actually trusted members of their respective communities, in addition to people that Aang and Zuko could say that they trust, to promote a general sense of happiness throughout the nation. Because of this, they were glad to say, the meetings generally only suffered small disagreements.

This one had been difficult, as far as they go. Zuko, Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and all of their gathered politicians could were having trouble with a particularly difficult group of activists who did not agree with the new policies in place. The problem wasn't exactly a disagreement; they all agreed that none of their solutions were even close to working.

The meeting had gone on long enough that everyone fully agreed that another one would be necessary; maybe after a night's sleep something would just come to them. (With full awareness of the lacking likelihood.)

Zuko and Aang, however, had both somehow ended up at the Fire Nation Palace. They didn't want to sound self-important, of course, but they privately considered themselves slightly more qualified and influential in the current times. It was very often that, based on that logic, they would end up discussing things far further than any of the others.

"I greatly admire your optimism," Zuko was saying, and Aang heard sincerity much louder than placating condescension, "but I just don't think that giving their leader a part in decision making processes will do anything but encourage more people to act out."

They were sitting in the royal dining room, at one end of the table, posture and manners probably the most casual the palace had ever seen, eating leftover food from the previous night's dinner. The royal chef had, of course, insisted on only giving his best, and being allowed to prepare them a fresh delicious meal of whatever they wanted. ("Whatever we want?" "Of course." "Even… leftovers?")

"And I like your sense of order, but I think that it's just too harsh to give them any sort of criminal record just for protesting our ideas. I think that should be allowed!" was Aang's (complimentary) counterargument.

"I know I never say this, but maybe we should just save this for the next meeting," Zuko, said, slightly proud to have impressed the Avatar, but still unsure of the best course of action. "Besides, it's all starting to give me a headache."

"Do you want me to leave?" Aang asked, eternally catering to the needs of others.

"No, let's just. Talk about something else." 

Ever the conversationalist, Aang was quick to do just that. "I know these meetings are a pain, but it's nice to have the gang all together again." Zuko nodded his agreement. Aang spent a lot of time traveling around the nations, doing hands on work rather than only making executive decisions, and being friendly, and willing to personally greet and deal with the so-called "little people" in the world, so Zuko saw him more frequently than he saw Katara, Sokka, or Toph, but still he was lucky to see him monthly.

"I spent all of my time with them, and then later with you as well, so traveling alone so frequently is still foreign to me. Nice, sometimes, but usually lonely." 

"I know what you mean. This place isn't exactly bursting with visitors at any point," Zuko agreed, rubbing his temples.

"Oh, I bet I can help that!" Aang said, jumping up and putting his hands on Zuko's head. Ordinarily, this would be something that would cause Zuko to flinch, but he'd come to expect it with him. "I think that I got good at things like this because earthbending."

"How could that possibly mm…" Zuko was cut off by the fact that Aang was apparently right, and was good at things like that, as his headache was massaged away in a few minutes, and he was ready to fall asleep right there at the table.

"We'll figure out what to do about those protestors," Aang said, and Zuko was not quite sure if the reason he agreed with this was because he was no longer able to think properly with Aang's ministrations. "I mean, we've gotten ourselves all the way here, haven't we?" he added, a slight smirk evident in his voice."

"I'm glad to hear you taking some sort of credit," Zuko replied smugly, laughing at Aang, at himself, at his happiness over the way that everything had turned out.

"_And it's gonna be even more different. We'll rebuild it together."_


End file.
